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Lost and Found

And this trip certainly took us! This is the rest of yesterday’s story. I have one more short one to tell and then I’ll pack my bags. Here’s a recap:

We Found Tuscon without getting Lost (If you know us you, know that’s big)

H’s phone did get Lost (stolen) at jcp

We Found the best seat on the plane but Lost air space to the big blurry man

We Found our uglied-up luggage and my nice looking cousin in Seattle

We Found our ship and our room

We Lost our sea legs

We Lost our dinners

Our assigned table in dining room which we Lost for 3 nights

We Lost our dinners because I’m unfailingly polite. Sometimes that’s a good thing. Sometimes, not so much.

The great difference between voyages rests not with the ships, but with the people you meet on them. ~ Amelia E. Barr

For example, we Found Wala, our head cabin steward, finishing up our room when we boarded Friday afternoon. He soon got Lost and wasn’t Found again until Wednesday. Meeting him did make the voyage very different from all the previous ones.

On Sunday, we arrived in Juneau. It was a beautiful sunny day, which is really saying something about an area that gets 55-90 inches of rain between May and October and then it starts snowing.

Leaving Juneau by float plane

Heidi Found her sea legs but mine were still Lost as I griped my bottled water and filled up on tiny Tums.

Found these at the airport. How cool to get an antacid and breath freshener in one! They made up my entire Sunday breakfast. Haven’t been able to look at one since.

In Juneau, we took a float plane to a remote area and went on a bear hunt (which will be my next and final vacation story).

Beautiful float plane flight

I was moderately sick on the way to the island. I was really sick on the flight home and just barely Found the room before I Lost Saturday’s soup and a half a container of tiny Tums.

When we got back on the ship, there was a notice on the door.

Cruise Ship GIS warning

As it turns out, Heidi wasn’t seasick and I wasn’t tap-water sick, we had the Cruise Ship Flu. Since we got sick the 2nd day of the cruise, catching it so quickly was a mystery. The mystery was solved when I Found Wala on Wednesday, “feeling much better”. Much of the crew had gotten the bug at the end of the previous cruise and the symptoms started when they saw us!

You probably can’t read the last sentence in the photo of our notice. It says:

The biggest problem is that this illness is readily spread from person to person (such as by shaking hands) as well as by touching surfaces and items that an ill person has touched.

In my pre-Top Secret Agent life, shaking hands wasn’t just polite, it was a standard professional practice. When we met Wala Friday afternoon, I cheerfully shook his hand. Heidi, wisely, just stuck with hi. In my weak defense, I doubt there was a surface in the room he hadn’t touched while getting it ready for us so maybe we would have gotten sick anyway?

Because this was a 2 week voyage, Juneau was followed by a 2nd At Sea day where I remained quarantined as requested by the captain. I Lost myself in book 3 of a Dean Koontz series I’d been reading on my Kindle. Everything on the ship changed. There were bars on all the books in the library.

Books behind bars

For a week there was no serving yourself anything at the buffet where the wait staff looked like surgeons in their plastic gloves. At nearly every corner, someone was squirting Purell on you. Even the salt and pepper shakers were removed.

Puzzles pieces were quarantined. I don’t do puzzles on cruises but it was strange to read puzzle warnings on the tables.

Missing pieces

To their credit, the staff did all they could to contain the virus and threw a party the second week with free wine (or soda) and cheer for all.

Celebration notice

Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey. ~ Fitzhugh Mullan

We Lost about 3 days of this 14 day trip, but Found new ways to celebrate the journey! One last story about Bear Hunting and then this vacation will be all packed up.

17 thoughts on “Lost and Found”

Hello Jill!
I don’t think Heidi agrees. She asked me why anyone would want to read about someone else’s vacation?
Good point. Even more true if I’m going to dedicate an entire post to throwing-up.
Maybe the coyotes are getting to me? 😉
Love you, too!

Oh you are such troopers! You went on a plane, with the flu and just some Tums? You get an award!!! It reminds me of once our oldest had pneumonia, but I didn’t know it. We just kept trying to let her go and do things! So glad that you found a way not to lose it about all this . .. and stay covered in His grace! love and prayers and thanks for the bestest stories!

Oh Debbie –
Oh your poor daughter!
You can’t help what you don’t know. I can’t tell you how guilty I felt about going on that plane trip – and the bus ride to the plane – trailing my viral germs behind me. I never would have exposed everyone if I’d had any idea I had the flu.
And T & B never did get sick so I really thought there was just something in the water…
It didn’t ruin the trip at all. We had a wonderful time and many grand adventures! 😀

Oh goshamitey! I get queasy reading this, Debbie–only you and Heidi could come out this with grace, humor, and your always positive spirit. I would have died, surely–to add to all the on-board hub-bub. I don’t know if I’m up for a bear hunt, Sis–oh yeah, I won’t actually be going, just reading about it afterward!! God bless you BIG–love, sis Caddo

Caddo – Sis on the not-high-seas,
It was just the flu – nothing serious. Heidi was only sick 1 day and I was really fortunate to have 2 out of my 3 days be At Sea days.
The good thing about getting sick is how much you appreciate feeling well!
I felt SO good the rest of the trip! 😉

Hey there, Jeff!
The funny part is (I guess it’s funny) we were being so careful this time, right from the start. Constantly washing our hands, trying not to touch door handles etc… any more than absolutely required.
We never worried about it before and this is the only time (out of 7 cruises) that we’ve gotten sick. 😀
This was our 3rd cruise to Alaska and I don’t think I’d ever get tired of it.
It’s truly breathtakingly beautiful! I’m guessing you’d love it!

Judi –
It was an interesting day. Of course, I think just about everything is interesting, but Heidi is very bear phobic (childhood trauma) and I was really sick and our guide – well therein lies the story…

Heidi –
Thank goodness you weren’t! We both know how that would have gone!
Let’s just hope I’m always the one to get sicker! 😉
(it was a wonderful cruise – I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea to write a story about throwing-up)

Hi Mel!
We were on Holland America this time because we wanted to go to Kodiak and Anchorage. This was their last year for 2 week Alaska cruises.
Other than the northern ports, I think all the ships make about the same stops because there are only so many coastal towns that can accommodate so many people: Juneau, Sitka, Skagway, Ketchikan,Icy Straits etc…
It certainly is beautiful country, isn’t it?
It’s a lot like the southern Oregon coast where you and Jen will come and visit us once we’re decommissioned agents!

I will be to Gold Beach Ore. in a heartbeat. My Aunt Cleo lost uncle owen a few months back. My mom’s brother died about 3 months after my mom. He lived almost 90 years with Type I diabetes. He was the kindest man … and Gold Beach, as i remember it was wonderful. It smelled of pine trees, and there were beautiful, peaceful docks we used to visit. I will be there. I will. How soon before you retire? I’m itching to visit Oregon.

Oh, I so feel your pain. . .when you mentioned how sick you guys were I wondered about if that was what was wrong. . .I suffered the Noro Virus on our last Alaskan Cruise, and was quarantined to my cabin by the ship’s doctor. . .my poor hubby was held captive as well. . .we completely missed Juneau. . .no fun to be sure!

Hi Janice!
Oh, I’m so sorry you got sick, too!
It truly didn’t occur to either of us that we had the flu. Heidi’s slight disposition to sea sickness and the rolling seas seemed to explain it her symptoms.
We were both sure I was just sick from drinking the tap water.
I shouldn’t have gone anywhere in Juneau as I’m sure I was spreading the virus as I went, but I had no idea I had the flu.
My cousin and her husband didn’t get sick at all (we didn’t shake hands either). 😉